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Our Mission

The Yolo County Historical Museum’s mission is to preserve and protect the historical heritage and culture of Yolo County.

Previously, the Yolo County Historical Museum managed the Gibson home, land and outbuildings as a historic house museum. Until the summer of 2018, the Gibson House had been a museum open to the public for more than 25 years. William Byas Gibson was typical of ranchers and farmers in the early agricultural history of Yolo County. The house and grounds were maintained for educational and recreational purposes. The museum represented a typical rural home and ranch setting of the period from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

The Gibson House is located on two-and-a-half landscaped acres. The buildings include the main house with eleven rooms; an outbuilding containing a root cellar and dairy display; an outbuilding containing a laundry display; an outbuilding used for garden maintenance and supplies; a garage used for historic artifact storage and conservation; two modern barns used for display and storage; and a blacksmith shop.

Unfortunately, the elaborate historic display of agricultural equipment in one of the barns was removed to create a modern art gallery.

The Gibson House was the only historic home in Yolo County open to the public. The main themes of the museum were the establishment and development of farming and ranching in Yolo County, as shown through the life and work of William Byas Gibson and his family. The Gibson House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.